I love you, Paul Krugman
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Isn't there a way to put a heading on the column or blog post that identifies it as, say, a "column" or "blog post"?
Their newest album "Love is Dead" is pretty cool. The song "Miracle" has gotten in my head lately. Definitely a turn-it-up song. Lead singer Lauren Mayberry has a very cool voice and is shockingly beautiful.
For new comers, I have a play list of Paul's FNM picks here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFxlsdJtda3owy6SSTLUUEk392Z9jhdK4
It took me a year or so to get the idea to make the playlist so it's missing the very early FNM posts.
I also do my best to find a related song (most of Paul's picks are live performances) for a Spotify playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/user/ideadude/playlist/7fpgLU7iYjgjGmUNrkvGh8?s...
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One of my favorite bands and why this 63 year old has tickets to Lollapalooza
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chvrches
kind of shocking that your readers' comments show a need to acquaint themselves with more modern tunes.
they've been around 6 years and tour extensively. lead singer Lauren quite outspoken on current issues.
Great! Many thanks.
This mid-50s hipster wannabe is currently enamored by Car Seat Headrest. Angsty, awkward, exuberant, and thoughtful with great guitar hooks and clever lyrics. The dude’s 24 and has already put out 10 records. Check him out. P.s. Do you go to shows and feel a need to scope out at least ONE person older than you? Sometimes it’s a challenge.
"my mid-60s wannabe hipster" - is it your coming of age or your present age? Could be either. This post goes well with Dave Eggers: A Cultural Vacuum in Trump’s White House on the same page.
Knowing your Ukrainian heritage, Paul, and your previous mention of DakhaBrakha, I would like to invite you to their NYC Sony Hall show July 22.
7/14/18 Vancouver FMF Vancouver BC
7/16/18 Kuumbwa Santa Cruz CA
7/18/18 SFJAZZ San Francisco CA
7/20/18 Finger Lakes Grass Roots Fest Trumansburg NY
7/22/18 Sony Hall NYC Madison WI
7/23/18 City Winery - DC Washington DC
7/27/18 Detroit Institute of the Arts Detroit MI
7/30/18 The Dakota Minneapolis MN
7/31/18 MUSIC ON THE HALF SHELL Hillsboro OR
8/3/18 Pickathon Portland OR
8/8/18 Nectar Lounge Seattle WA
8/10/18 Edmonton FF Edmonton AB
8/12/18 Regina FF Regina SK
8/15/18 Central Park Sessions Madison WI
9/21/18 Native Sons Hall Courtenay BC
9/22/18 Cowichan Theatre Duncan BC
9/27/18 Ace Hotel Los Angeles CA
9/29/18 The Freight Berkeley CA
10/2/18 Folsom Lake College Folsom CA
10/5/18 Humboldt State Arcata CA
10/7/18 Mystic Theatre Petaluma CA
10/9/18 The Ritz San Jose San Jose CA
10/12/18 Desert Daze Los Angeles CA
10/14/18 Open Spaces KC Kansas City MO
I'm a decade younger than Mr. Krugman, but, like him, I'm doing a lot of catching up to music that others have been on to for quite a while. One example of this is the Australian singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett. Her music is grunge-tinged smart song-writing the stems from her personal experience in a witty, refreshing way. Clever lyrics. In a totally different realm, I've begun listening to John Coltrane's new "lost" album, and it is excellent so far.
Thanks. Fun to hear a bit of different music.
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Glad FNM is back. Very entertaining. I did not notice an accent. Maybe it is because my maternal grandmother, who I knew very well, was a descendant of Scotch-Irish settlers in Virginia and North Carolina. I have been researching her and only have images of her when she was fiftyish. She was petite about 4'10" and loved to sing and play her dulcimer. She gave birth to 14 children and lived to her 90's so she was of hearty stock. She died when I was in Viet Nam in 1964. Unfortunately, the death of a grandmother did not qualify as a reason for leave.
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Love this song (even if I can’t understand all the words). Thanks for a little relief from the gloaming present.
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How lVcky we are to have Mr. KrVgman even on days when his colVmns don't regVlarly appear!
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Paul, I love you, but not your music. What we need now is Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come." With great respect, Tom's wife.
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Paul,
For me it's still the Grateful Dead. The times were still anxious but it still appeared we were on the correct path.
M Cleary
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Looks like eye makeup will be a growth industry worth investing in. Sorry, but you know, economics has to creep in there.
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Self-indulgent? Yes. But, Not a Column? I disagree.
Mixing with an expert writer who clearly likes doing the craft is a joy unto itself, especially for other writers. The doing of it matters; seeing it done (well) matters equally.
And, what the heck: It's short, sweet and FUN! Thanks.
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This column puts me in mind of the moments before the Titanic sank below the waves when the ship’s violin quartet played on the deck to frenzied, panicked passengers trying desparately to avoid drowning.
History repeating itself.
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I'm a lefty, so I disagree with Krugman on most everything economically and politically. But I share his music taste and appreciate these writeups.
Just wondering: on what planet would a 'lefty' disagree with Dr. K?
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Very cool. I'm a streaming WEHM fan, so you know I want it to be "Mainstream".
You must listen to the music after 8 at night. Absolutely the best progressive radio station I have ever heard and I had my own shows in College. I'm humbled by their excellence.
Don your dancing shoes and release your seat belt. The ride is terrific. You'll feel like a kid again.
Hi paul
For further listening check sunflower bean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMXvr6uIynY
I suspect them of paraphrasing Dylan Thomas (Do not go gentle into that good night). That must take you back to Greenwich Village in the 60's (although suposingly 'Kafka was the rage' back then).
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Ah, dear Sir, I deeply appreciate your views on politics, economics, values, and our culture. But I am dismayed by your tastes in music.
Having performed for over 60 years, art songs, opera, musical theatre, religious music (both Christian and Jewish), folk music, improvised and classics, my perception of this band re-enforces my belief that the invention of the microphone was the death knell for the human voice.
First of all, it allows anyone to pretend to sing; it substitutes electronic control of vocal timbre for quality vocal production; the mike only amplifies the voice, it does not improve diction; and it is simply ugly to have a mike covering up part of your face when you're trying to communicate with an audience.
As far as this group, there is nothing new, interesting, or engaging other than it satisfies minimum musical values - or, to be more clear, it only clarifies the definition of "pop" music.
Yikes!
I'd rather listen to Chvrches than read your "get off my lawn" screech! So I'm listening to their Tiny Desk effort while I write this.
The "invention of the microphone" and subsequent innovations in recording have enabled an explosion of music never seen before in human history. Bands of high schoolers regularly surpass the efforts of touring icons due to the Internet archive and music spans generations in a way that never existed. When you stand in a field with 80K others from teens to octos singing every word with Sir Paul it's an transcendent experience you sadly will never have.
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If you want to go deep, tell me did music precede language? It may have. Would really early music - 50,000 years ago - satisfy your present taste?
The microphone killed singing? That's news to Frank Sinatra fans. Or fans of Nat King Cole, Luther Vandross, Jason Mraz, Joni Mitchell, Beyonce, Tony Bennett, Ronald Isley, Ella Fitzgerald, Chaka Khan, Bing Crosby, Roy Orbison...I could go on...and on. Chvrches rocks. Try dancing to Der Rosenkavalier. Music isn't only for the ears.
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Thank you. The comments inspired me to listen which I wouldn't ordinarily for the same reason alluded to by others. I'm 80 and I loved it.
Paul
The Chvrches! Thank you for sharing and starting the Friday Night Music blog again. I've always found it a little oasis on Saturday mornings like this and always worthwhile choices. While you have opened the door to the Scottish indie scene, you should know there are many more bands from this small and beautiful country making music worth a listen. Here are some I recommend:
Frightened Rabbit
Withered Hand
Mersault
King Creosote
Malcomb Middleton
Kid Carnival...
And many more.
Thank you again.
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"Another reason was the political grimness of our times, which I have to admit put me out of the mood for music posts for a while."
Thank you for resuming Paul. A small thing but for us a bit of an oasis each week. Music can soothe the soul. I am a Pink Floyd fan listening to "Comfortably Numb" when I can.
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Thank you so much for reviving this blog. I understand your reasons for not doing it for a while and am glad that you are back to it, as I believe many of us need this kind of relief from that political grimness you mentioned. This week was one of the grimmest yet, so thank you for Friday Night Music.
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Only discovered Chvrches now. Many thanks for sharing.
I’m so glad to hear that you’re reviving ‘Friday Night Music’ — always great to hear new music.
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Thanks for the tip, Paul. So many younger women singers remind me of Harriet Wheeler of the 90s British band, the Sundays. Even the hairdo, in the case of Chvrches. And the name Chvrches might be an homage to the Sundays, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHsip5xOenQ
Not sure what I think of Chvrches, but at least it was interesting and not repelling.
I remember my dad who, born in 1915 came up in the Jazz Age and going to the Village Vanguard, seeing Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie perform (and getting drunk with Woody and a bunch of friends after) never, ever got Rock music, not from 1953 with Bill Haley and the Comets and Elvis to the music popular with his grandkids in the 90's.
There wasn't much of my dad I didn't want to be like, but the guy who didn't like or even TRY to understand rock was one of his very few failings that I didn't and don't want.
So I always try to keep an open mind and an open ear, and look for the spark of genius. And even if I don't "get" it, I recognize that my kids do--and that they get the music I grew up with, too, just as I appreciate and even love the big bands and the early folkies, like the Almanacs and the Weavers.
So this is definitely something worth listening to again, even though I couldn't make out any lyrics enough to catch the Glaswegian. (When I was in Glasgow, in 1976, I heard the real thing--sounds like a Germanic language even though it IS English and not Celtic).
Music is music. Mozart was the Rock'n'Roll of his day--remember that!
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Paul. Like you, I am a sixties something (soon to be seventy) and thought all good music ended in 1972. But a project, putting a playlist together that would keep the interest of teens and pre-teens as well as their parents has introduced me to a whole new universe of great music.
So now I keep the music programs totally confused because I am downloading everything from jazz to reggae to rap, world sounds to rock, folk to bluegrass, country to Tex-Mex. It's all good.
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Get out.
Leave a trace.
Bury it.
Miracle.
All good songs.
I was asking myself, a Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd fan how and why I could like this band.
Sometimes it’s just refreshing.
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Paul - you are an amazing fellow traveler on this journey to oblivion - but seriously - Scottish synth noodlings?
there is Bach - there is Mahler - there is Miles - there is Buddy - there is Aretha... nowhere in my pantheon is a Scottish synth band.
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Thanks for the tip Paul K. This track reminds me of that 80's synth group Nu Shooz (particularly their 2nd radio hit, "Point of No Return").
Retro 80's sounds are hip again, and I'm definitely into the retro thing being a Gen Xer myself. Will definitely pick up some cds or mp3s from this band.
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Paul, I discovered Chvrches earlier this year. My favorite of their songs are Bury It (a great video) and Now Is Not the Time. It's nice to know you and I have something in common besides politics.
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Thank you very much Paul. (since we are being informal)
I really enjoyed that and always like being turned on to new music. I didn't realize you posted music now and then. There used to be a really strong community at HuffPo a few years back, where we did the same until they changed the format and made it impossible.
Here is my contribution. Happy 4th to everyone. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpPJQMljtOw
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It seems that there are a lot of ''old fogeys'' about that are musical purists (or snobs if you will ) lol
Here is a little somethin' somethin' for you too, Enjoy :)
Robert Johnson - Kind Hearted Woman Blues (1936)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82yNxiF-T4A
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